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CNN Saturday Morning News

President Bush Plans to Discuss Immigration Reform Monday Night; Medicare Drug Program Deadline Approaches

Aired May 13, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: "Now in the news."
President Bush takes his case for immigration reform to a nationwide TV audience Monday night. The speech comes amid plans being considered to send more National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. Our coverage begins Monday night at 7:00 eastern with a special edition of "The Situation Room." There's a full lineup followed by the presidential address, and then "Lou Dobbs Tonight" and of course "Larry King Live".

Time is running out for millions of older Americans. Monday is the deadline to enroll in a Medicare prescription drug benefit program. Those who miss this deadline could face a penalty.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: FBI agents search the home and office of ousted CIA Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo. He was forced to resign this week from overseeing day-to-day CIA operations. Foggo was under investigation for his ties to a defense contractor linked to a bribery case. The president's choice to head the CIA says snooping by the National Security Agency is lawful. "USA Today" reports the NSA has the records of all the calls made, all the calls made by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth customers. Says surely, after 9/11. Qwest Communications refused to surrender its records saying it violates federal privacy laws.

A new lava dome forms at the peak of Indonesia's Merapi volcano and thousands of villagers evacuate the mountain slopes. Authorities raised the alert to the highest level warning and a rupture may be imminent. The volcano last erupted in 1994 killing at least 60 people.

NGUYEN: Well, many lawmakers and just everyday citizens in this country are divided on how to make our border with Mexico more secure. What can our government do about it? It is a hot issue and it is straight ahead right here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. From the CNN Center this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is May 13th, 8:00 A.M. in Atlanta, 5:00 A.M., very early, in Los Angeles. Probably a lot of folks still asleep, but hopefully they're waking up and tuning in. Good morning everybody, I'm Betty Nguyen.

HARRIS: Good morning everyone, I'm Tony Harris. Thank you for being with us.

NGUYEN: Well immigration, it is such a hot topic in this country right now. President Bush has come up with a new proposal for border security and he is taking this discussion to the American people in a speech set for Monday.

We have two reports for you. First, CNN White House correspondent Elaine Quijano, she joins us from Washington with the latest on this.

What do you know about this speech?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well good morning to you, Betty. In fact, it is illegal immigration that has sparked such heated emotions and with the Senate preparing to take up this issue later next week, President Bush wants to weigh in on the debate. Now his decision to make these remarks comes at a time when he has faced intense pressure from conservatives and members of his own party who say they want him to get tough on border security and they also oppose something he very strongly supports, the idea of a temporary guest worker program.

Well now a senior Bush aide says that border security will be a major focus when the president delivers those remarks on Monday. One option being discussed Pentagon sources tell CNN is having the federal government pay for an increased role, for National Guard troops along the border with Mexico. The senior official says the president has not made a decision yet but this aide suggests no decision will be made that will jeopardize either missions overseas or hurricane preparations.

Now the rhetoric in this debate has remained red hot. Yesterday members of The Minutemen Project who oppose illegal immigration, flocked to Washington and demonstrated on Capitol Hill. In turn, that sparked counter demonstrations. It is against that backdrop that President Bush plans to also reiterate what he has said before about comprehensive immigration legislation. That he wants to see border security, interior enforcement as well as a temporary guest worker program. And Betty, we can also expect him to say something that we have heard him talk about before and that is that immigrants, he says, have responsibilities to assimilate into American culture. Betty?

NGUYEN: Well let's talk about some of the plans on the table. Especially a compromise. Any progress with that?

QUIJANO: Well, that is exactly what the president is trying to push at this point as the Senate, as you know, is prepared to move forward on this. The House, meantime, members of the GOP, are staunchly opposed to this idea of a guest worker program. They call it amnesty and there is in fact, a lot of division on this issue. Whether or not the president's comments will be able to help bridge that divide, we'll have to see and one senior administration official here acknowledges, Betty, on this issue is going to be a quote, "heavy lift." Betty?

NGUYEN: Yes, we'll see how it turns out. But no doubt there's a lot of pressure on all sides here. Elaine Quijano at the White House for us this morning. Thank you, Elaine.

HARRIS: And we continue our coverage with senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre who reports the battles over our southern border could get a boost from some troops.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Pentagon's been asked to draw up options for the military to help beef up security along the U.S.-Mexico border. And Pentagon sources tell CNN one idea under consideration is to have the federal government pick up the tab for several thousand additional National Guard troops, to be activated in the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Under that option, the guard troops would remain under the control of state governors, as they were during hurricane Katrina. And would be limited to a supporting role, providing logistics, intelligence and surveillance help to civilian authorities. That's already being done on a small scale by several hundred guard troops, but the numbers could jump to several thousand.

FRANK GAFFNEY, CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY: This is a job that we can train our forces to perform, we can utilize the panoply of sensors and detection devices and monitoring equipment and military hardware to ensure that we do not continue to be subjected to what amounts to an onslaught every single day.

MCINTYRE: Still, don't expect do see U.S. troops on the front lines patrolling the border, officials say, but with additional helicopters, unmanned spy planes and sophisticated computers and communications, the guard can be what the Pentagon calls, a force multiplier for the overburdened U.S. border patrol and local law enforcement.

Active duty U.S. troops are barred from domestic law enforcement by a Civil War-era law known as posse comitatus. But National Guard troops under state control, can perform some law enforcement functions such as crowd control. Still, the Pentagon is anxious to avoid the sort of controversy that erupted back in 1997 when a U.S. marine supporting counter drug agents, shot and killed a goat herder along the Mexican border.

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon says in theory it could sustain a force of up to 10,000 guard troops along the Mexican border, without affecting its other operations. But officials say it's way too early to say how many troops might be deployed. And they insist any additional military assistance will be temporary, until the U.S. customs and border protection agency can hire additional, permanent personnel.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: We have some new video in to CNN that we want to share with you right now. This is from Indonesia, you're looking at Mount Merapi and as you can tell this volcano is on the verge of eruption. Thousands have been evacuated. In fact, one of the local crisis centers, the head of that crisis center, says some 22,000 people need to be evacuated because of this volcano that's on the verge of erupting.

But the problem is, they're being shipped to local shelters, but those shelters really aren't equipped to handle the massive amounts of people that are needing to find places to be housed while this volcano is on the verge of spewing lava all over the place.

But we'll have to tell you though, a little bit about Mount Merapi. This is one of the most active and dangerous volcanoes in Indonesia. Back in 1994, it killed 66 people when it erupted and in another eruption in 1930, a while back, killed 1300. So we're going to stay on top of this and bring you the latest pictures from the volcano and the latest on the evacuation. Very important story overseas and we'll stay on top of it.

HARRIS: OK. Here's the thing. We are following this story throughout the morning trying to get you the information that you need if you need to sign up for the Medicare prescription drug benefit program.

NGUYEN: The deadline is coming.

HARRIS: Deadline is Monday and we called last hour to find out if there was anyone manning just this one particular center here in the Atlanta area.

NGUYEN: But it's a 24-hour center.

HARRIS: That is a 24-hour center that is supposed to offer someone to help walk you through the steps of signing up if you need it.

NGUYEN: Well especially right now. Because this is the last weekend, this is the crunch.

HARRIS: Exactly. What happened last hour?

NGUYEN: Well we got a recording is what happened last hour.

HARRIS: We got a recording. So we called again inside the last two minutes or so.

NGUYEN: Thinking that maybe they'd be open, it's a little bit later.

HARRIS: It's a little later, eastern time, it's a little later, so, what did we get? Roll it for me. Did we record it, did we get someone? Still, nothing. Did we get anything? Nothing?

NGUYEN: Sounds like we got a recording. Still waiting, though, but the point is this deadline is on Monday and if seniors don't file for this or at least sign up for it by then they're going to be penalized. I believe we have the sound right now.

HARRIS: Here's what happened a couple of moments ago when we tried to call again to get someone to talk to us about signing up for this program. (BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... starting Medicare, Medicaid and prescription assistance, due to the extremely high call volume we are unable to take your call at this time.

(END AUDIOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Same recording.

HARRIS: OK. Now you know on this weekend before the deadline there were going to be a lot of people who were going to be crunching trying to get this done at the last minute. We're a nation with a lot of procrastinators.

NGUYEN: Well because if they don't, again we have to say that they're going to be penalized. They're going to be charged 1 percent for every month afterwards.

HARRIS: Exactly. Still we're going to keep calling the number. We understand that it's early, but we also know that folks who are going to need help, need to be able to call these numbers and get a person that they can talk to. So we'll just call and let you know when we finally get a live voice to talk us to about this process because you'll need that issue moved forward and try to sign up for this program before the Monday deadline.

NGUYEN: Yeah, but regardless you have a lot of questions, we know you do. You've been talking to us about it all morning long. So keep those questions coming. Here it is. What would you like to ask the secretary of Health and Human Services about the new Medicare prescription drug plan? E-mail us, weekends@cnn.com. But here's the deal. You can direct those to the secretary, but also this morning, we have a pharmacist on hand, in studio, who's going to take some of these questions and try to get you the answers that you need so that you can sign up this weekend before the deadline.

HARRIS: OK.

NGUYEN: And we're going to be talking a little bit more, too, about securing the border Tony. Because coming up, stopping illegal immigrants and others from slipping through the cracks, that's one of the main issues on the table. We're going to talk to an expert about the challenges facing those who protect our borders.

HARRIS: And we'll be reminding you of this all morning. Deadline day is near for seniors who have not signed up for the Medicare prescription drug benefit program. Again, if you have questions, we are going to get you answers this morning. It's the reason to be here this morning for us, to get you...

NGUYEN: That's the reason. It's the whole point. Send the questions in.

HARRIS: We'll take a break, come back with an (INAUDIBLE)...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Women hate it, that ugly, bumpy, cottage cheese fat under the skin usually on the hips and thighs known as cellulite. Some women opt for plastic surgery and liposuction, but other women are now trying to combat cellulite with another option.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mesotherapy involves injection of some medications under the skin.

COHEN: Even with thousands of dollars and potential expense and weekly injections, some women do swear by this relatively noninvasive procedure. The cocktail is a blend of drugs. Each drug is approved by the FDA using them in combination is not and there's no standardized formula for the cocktail. Physicians mix their own. And there has been reported cases of skin irritations and infections.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm convinced that it doesn't work and I'm not going to risk my patients' health with something that's not true.

COHEN: And there is a bottom line to any fat reduction program.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very important to eat right and exercise to keep it off long term.

COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: We have some new information to give you this morning. Zacarias Moussaoui has been transported from an Alexandria detention center late Friday night. He was flown by jet to a maximum security facility in Colorado, where he will begin serving his life sentence for being convicted in a case involving his role in a plot to take down some U.S. structures with an airplane.

Of course, we're just keeping you posted on the movements of Zacarias Moussaoui as he has been moved from a detention center in Virginia to a maximum facility in Colorado. The latest on that, and of course, as you know he is serving a life sentence and that is where he will serve the sentence. Tony?

HARRIS: Making our border with Mexico more secure, one possibility calls for thousands of more National Guard troops to help with the patrols. Coming up in just a moment we'll hear from detection specialist, Barry McManus for his thoughts and suggestions on the issue. First, a quick fact check on the history of the U.S. border patrol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN (voice-over): The U.S. Border Patrol got its start in the early 1900s. For a handful of agents on horseback the job involved patrolling desolate often rugged areas along the borders with Mexico and Canada. More than 11,000 men and women continue doing that work today, patrolling nearly 6,000 miles of border area as well as some 2,000 miles of coastal waters and the island of U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

While horses are still used, the border patrol covers deserts, canyons and mountains in SUVs, all-terrain motorcycles, snow mobiles, bicycles and planes. A recent addition to their equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles.

While charged with stopping the flow of illegal immigrants, another crucial job is trying to ensure terrorists and weapons of mass destruction don't get into the U.S. The patrol says that last year over 1 million people were arrested for illegally entering the country. Agents also play a role in the war on drugs. With help from sniffer dogs, agents seized more than 12,000 pounds of cocaine and over a million pounds of marijuana last year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Barry McManus joins us now. Barry good to see you.

BARRY MCMANUS, DECEPTION DETECTION SPECIALIST: Good to see you also Tony. Good morning to you.

HARRIS: National guard troops on the southern border. What do you think?

MCMANUS: Well, I think it's a good idea. I'm going to applaud anything that we can do to hopefully stop potential terrorists or individuals entering the United States with hostile intent. I think that's very important. But yes I will applaud it.

HARRIS: Police state? The beginnings of a police state?

MCMANUS: I don't want to say it's the beginnings of a police state because --

HARRIS: National I.D. card?

MCMANUS: Well, again, I will address the fact that I think it's a good idea to come up with new things, innovative things to stop individuals that you believe that are entering the United States with hostile intent.

HARRIS: Are terrorists crossing the border, Mexicans or others from Latin America who intend to do real harm to this country. Is there evidence that that is in fact taking place?

MCMANUS: I am not going to address the hard evidence because it's there, but the fact are individuals coming into the United States from different parts of the country, whether it's the southern border or the northern border, absolutely. I mean, being in the news you know there's been reported cases where individuals have tried to enter the United States with hostile intent. My job is to make certain those individuals aren't terrorists that are entering the United States with hostile intent, not just criminals. HARRIS: It seems though, that to this point the intentions of the people coming in from the southern border is to improve their lives economically. Not to do real harm to the United States in the sense of terrorism. Do you have a sense that that is changing or could potentially change? Obviously, anything's possible.

MCMANUS: Well it's unfortunate that the individuals that are coming to the United States to make their lives better, to make their family lives better, that they're caught up and this whole unfortunate, past 9/11, the idea that we have to stop everyone, we have to really put the best foot forward to stop anyone, everyone from entering the United States period. Not even just for a better life. I'm only interested in those individuals for me, for us, law enforcement and intelligence to stop those individuals specifically that are designing that come into the United States with terrorist intentions.

HARRIS: How do you identify that? Barry, I'm not -- I'm crossing the border illegally, true, but I'm not a terrorist. Barry I'm not a terrorist, I'm just nervous as I sit here in front of you. I'm shaking, I'm sweating because I'm nervous because you're going to send me back. I'm not a terrorist. How do you differentiate between those two types of people?

MCMANUS: Well let's start at the beginning. My job is to train U.S. customs and border protection officers to look for detecting deception. Then part of that you have to understand is bringing that behavioral science package to law enforcement officers to be able to identify those indicators that may mean, just as you said, whether it's physiological, verbal, nonverbal. That's the first step. The second step is to say, you know what, what about the culture behind these individuals that are coming in.

Not just Mexicans, anyone else that may be entering the United States that you believe, that have those concerns that are expressing it, whether it's nervousness or not, take those individuals into a secondary environment and spend time talking to them because part of stopping people from committing terrorist acts is to get to know them. Understand the mindset, understand the culture, the traditions, the values, all of those things that people have up in their head that you have to elicit during a secondary environment, a secondary interview.

HARRIS: Do you believe if we had found a way to capture, arrest, Muhammad Atta before the 9/11 attacks, do you believe you could have sat him in a room, interviewed him and discerned the plot?

MCMANUS: I would say if you get anyone like that and you understand the mindset, you understand the ideology, you understand the motivations, the opportunity would be better to elicit bits and pieces of information, would you have broken the case? Not necessarily. Would you may have gotten one thing, another name, a phone number. A potential name of another suspect. Would that have made it a little bit better for you to go out and stop this plot, one of the most horrific acts that ever happened to the history of the United States? The potential is there.

HARRIS: That's good. Barry thanks for your time this morning. We appreciate it.

MCMANUS: Thank you.

HARRIS: That's good information. We appreciate it. We'll take a break, come back with more of CNN SATURDAY MORNING right after this.

MCMANUS: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Just another reminder. Our in-depth coverage of the president's speech gets started with a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday with Wolf Blitzer. After the speech join us for a very special "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT." On the president's immigration -- hot, hot TV and that's followed by "LARRY KING LIVE," and it is all here on CNN.

NGUYEN: Well, our e-mail question to you this morning is very important as well. What would you like to ask the secretary of Health and Human Services about the new Medicare prescription drug plan? As you know, the deadline is on Monday. Send us your questions.

A lot of people are having difficulties trying to set up the program, get into the system and make sure they're enrolled on time. So we can help you out. Send the questions to weekends@cnn.com. Know that we will send those to the secretary, but we also have a pharmacist live in studio who's going to take some of these questions and give you the answers this morning. So send them in.

And, coming up, we have a live report from Indonesia. A lot going on there where they are on high alert because of what you see right there, a possible volcanic eruption.

HARRIS: Plus time for your "HOUSE CALL" and we're celebrating mother's day weekend with a look at women's health. Find out what you need to know to stay healthy on "HOUSE CALL" today with Elizabeth Cohen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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