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American Morning

Stolen Vets' Data; U.S.-Israel Talks; Gaza in Crisis

Aired May 23, 2006 - 08:59   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Practice for disaster in New Orleans. The city is simulating hurricane conditions today to test new evacuation plans.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of veterans vulnerable to identity thieves. Names, addresses and Social Security numbers stolen. Why weren't they being kept in a safe place?

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ed Henry at the White House, where President Bush is prepping for his first meeting with the new Israeli prime minister. Mideast peace and the nuclear ambitions of Iran at the top of the agenda

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon. The U.S. military says it has the Taliban on the run, but are civilians getting caught in the crossfire? I'll have that just ahead.

S. O'BRIEN: And take a look at these pictures. A desperate leap to safety. We'll tell you the story about what happened to that boy and his mother just above straight ahead on this edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

Terrible pictures, a good ending to the story, though. That's coming up in just a moment.

Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Here's a look at what's happening this morning, Tuesday, May 23rd.

Mexican President Vicente Fox, heading north of the border today, begins a trip to the U.S. with a stop in Utah. Immigration is the focus. Utah's Hispanic population has tripled since 1990. Most of them are Mexicans.

Another visit by another leader. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meets with President Bush this afternoon. They'll discuss Olmert's plan for the West Bank and ways to keep the Mideast peace process moving.

S. O'BRIEN: General Michael Hayden will likely move one step closer to becoming CIA director today. The Senate Intelligence Committee votes on his nomination this afternoon. The full Senate could confirm General Hayden later this week.

The trial of convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad resumes in just about 30 minutes. Muhammad's teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, is expected to testify against him.

M. O'BRIEN: There's a deal in the works to settle that huge accounting scandal at the mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Regulators say top executives at the company cooked the books to ensure they got millions in bonuses. The settlement may require Fannie Mae to pay a half-billion-dollar fine.

S. O'BRIEN: And Mayor Ray Nagin is going to help lead a hurricane drill in New Orleans today. The drill is part of the mayor's new evacuation plan. That plan was unveiled earlier this month.

Also this morning, an FBI investigation is under way into the potential identity theft of millions of American veterans. A computer disk with all of their personal information, including Social Security numbers, was stolen from the home of a government employee.

CNN Chief National Correspondent John King has our story this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The stolen Department of Veterans Affairs records represent the largest data breach in history, personal information on 25 million living veterans, and some of their spouses.

MARK RASCH, FMR. CYBERCRIME PROSECUTOR: Whether you're a terrorist and you want to fly on an airplane, or you want to get somebody's credit card information or get credit, all you need is their name, their date of birth and their Social Security number, exactly the information that was stolen here.

KING: The government says the thieves may not know the value of what they have.

ALBERTO GONZALES, U.S. ATTY. GENERAL: We have no reason to believe at this time that there has been -- that the identities of these veterans have been compromised.

KING: The V.A. says a longtime employee took the data home earlier this month, a violation of government policy, and then reported it stolen during a burglary at his home. The government says the computer files had personal data on 26.5 million people in all, all 25 million living military veterans, a modest number of their spouses, and more than a million deceased veterans.

The FBI is investigating, as well as the department's inspector general. The government has alerted the major credit agencies and set up a hotline in case people like Korean war veteran Robert Armstrong see any suspicious activity.

ROBERT ARMSTRONG, KOREAN WAR ARMY VETERAN: With Social Security numbers, they can eventually get into bank accounts and that sort of thing, and I'm not real happy about that. KING: Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Larry Craig says Congress needs to look quickly at data security across the government.

SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R), VETERANS AFFAIRS CHAIRMAN: It was lax at this agency. But if it was lax there, my guess is it's everywhere else. It's just that we have not focused on it with the intensity that we should have.

KING: Cybercrime experts says the government collects too much information to begin with, and has long ignored obvious security risks.

RASCH We can encrypt it. We can scramble it. We can make it more difficult to access. We just don't want to, because it's makes it more difficult to do our jobs.

KING: John King, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Any veteran who's got a question about stolen information can call the Veterans Administration Agency. The number right there -- 1-800-333-4636 -- 1-800-333-4636. Or go to the Web site. It's firstgov.gov -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: A U.S.-Israeli summit set for the White House today. It will be the first personal meeting between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who succeeded the ailing Ariel Sharon.

Just a few minutes ago, Olmert went into the Pentagon to see the defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. There you see them greeting each other. They are thought to have talked about Iran's nuclear program.

Ed Henry, live now from the White House with more.

Hello, Ed.

HENRY: Good morning, Miles.

Prime Minister Olmert is here in the United States, sounding out various officials. As you mentioned, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. Also, later this afternoon he'll be in the Oval Office with President Bush, sounding them out on this plan he campaigned on. He obviously won election about a month ago to replace the ailing prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

The plan is basically to withdraw from most of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The Bush administration urging a go- slow approach, concerned that imposing a West Bank settlement on the Palestinians could only complicate the Mideast peace process.

Prime Minister Olmert has responded, though, that given the fact that Hamas, the terrorist organization, has taken over the Palestinian government, he's not sure he can wait to negotiate with terrorists in his eyes. Take a listen to the prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EHUD OLMERT, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: What are we going to do? Wait until the Palestinians will change? How long? One year, two years, three years, five years, 10 years? And in the meantime, what, more terror, more innocent people killed, more victims, more blood, more suffering, more pain?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, officials here think that ending a lot of the settlement activities could be positive, it could pave the way for a Palestinian state. But Israel is also planning to keep other significant settlements. That could be seen as a land grab around the world at a time when the White House is trying to organize an international coalition to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Ed, as much as anything, this is about the two leaders developing a personal relationship, isn't it?

HENRY: Absolutely. There was a rapport there, obviously, between Prime Minister Sharon and President Bush. They need to reestablish that now with the new leader. Also, the violence in Gaza that we've seen playing out over the last 24 hours adding even more urgency to these talks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry, thank you very much.

Speaking of that violence, the Palestinian prime minister is vowing this morning to keep his country out of civil war even as clashes between rival Palestinian factions intensify.

John Vause following the situation from Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is one of the main intersections in Gaza City. These men are loyal to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas. They are the regular police that's here in the Gaza Strip.

Now, just across the road, a member of the new Hamas militia in the trademark camouflage trousers and also the black T-shirt. It is like this throughout the Gaza Strip, thousands of heavily armed men facing off amid escalating tension.

Occasionally, that tension erupts in gunfire, like it did on Monday. Caught and killed in that crossfire, a member of the Jordanian Embassy, a driver for the Jordanian ambassador here. His body has now been taken back to Israel for the return to Jordan, where the government there is demanding an official investigation.

Overnight, Egyptian officials held urgent talks between both sides to try and diffuse this crisis, but so far they've had little success. The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, will meet with the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, on Thursday, but there are fears if those talks fail Gaza will move closer to civil war.

John Vause, CNN, Gaza City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: In Afghanistan, there's growing concern that the Taliban is making a comeback. Just this week, a major U.S. offensive on Taliban targets killed up to 80 people. Locals in southern Afghanistan say many of those killed were civilians.

CNN's Jamie McIntyre is live -- is at the Pentagon this morning and has this report for us.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, it's interesting. I'm just looking at the summary of operations in Afghanistan over the last 24 hours, and it just gives you an idea of what kind of activity is going on there. Air Force A-10s, B1B bombers, Royal Air Force Tornadoes, French planes as well. Eight separate engagements yesterday dropping precision-guided bombs, 500 pound bombs, different engagements.

Of course, this coming a day after the U.S. had a very significant engagement with Taliban fighters near Kandahar, where as many as 80 people were killed. The U.S. military says 20 were confirmed as Taliban fighters. They're still sorting out some of the other casualties, but some of the locals on the ground there say that as many as 16 of those may have been civilians.

The U.S. military says while it is willing -- while it takes every measure possible to prevent unintended civilian casualties, if nose civilians are at the same place where the Taliban is firing on coalition forces, then those civilians are at risk. Again, no confirmation of the civilian deaths at that location, but the U.S. military concedes it is a possibility -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: So, with that concession, give me a sense of why we're seeing this resurgence and apparently a strong resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan right now.

MCINTYRE: Well, in several southern provinces in Afghanistan we've seen the Taliban sort of flooding back in with money and weaponry, trying to intimidate the local population, resorting to more roadside bombs. Another one today, we're told, killed three Afghan men and a woman -- were killed actually yesterday.

And the reason apparently is that they're trying to reassert influence in advance of NATO forces moving into the south. And the U.S. military, on the other hand, is trying to go on the offensive. All of these engagements the last couple of days have not been the Taliban attacking the U.S. It's been the U.S. attacking the Taliban.

Again, 6,000 NATO troops are supposed to take over for security in the south. And the U.S. commanders say once they have those additional forces there, they really do think they're going to start to get the upper hand on the Taliban in these -- in these areas.

S. O'BRIEN: Jamie McIntyre for us this morning.

Jamie, thanks.

A dramatic escape from a burning apartment building to tell you about. It happened in Hamburg, Germany, this morning.

Take a look at this. The fire there -- that's a little boy. He's 11 years old. He's trapped on that second floor balcony. Oh, it's horrible.

OK. Then he jumps. And he hangs on to kind of a rope that's there and manages to get to the floor below. So he's safe now.

That's his mother above. Ooh, she unfortunately takes the full plunge from the second floor. She injured, apparently, her hands and her feet in the fall.

There are firefighters carrying off the little boy. Both mother and son suffered smoke inhalation. The boy appears to be fine. The mother, a little bit of -- you can see her there on the ground -- a little bit of injury, apparently, to her hands and her feet.

Officials are not sure at this point what started that terrible fire.

Let's go right to the forecast and Chad.

Chad, gosh, those are awful pictures, aren't they?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I was trying to figure out what that little boy hung on to. Was it a screen?

S. O'BRIEN: You know, it looked like a cable, maybe a laundry type -- I mean, something that was fairly strong.

MYERS: Yes. It sure broke his fall.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. It saved him. It saved him, probably.

MYERS: That was really good for him. Yes, exactly. Absolutely.

And good morning, everybody.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Back to you guys.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Chad.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

Coming up on the program, Vicente Fox steps across the border and right into the middle of the immigration debate. But will it backfire on him? S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning in "House Call," find out why what you do before you get pregnant could help you have a healthy baby.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a race to shoot a movie in 48 hours. Some fall asleep. Some get sick. Some don't finish.

That story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: The federal government talks about its hurricane preparation plans today. With about a week to go before the start of hurricane season, officials are going to tell us how they have retooled federal response plans.

Representatives from Homeland Security, from FEMA, and from the U.S. military are going to brief reporters. And, of course, the hurricane season begins next week.

It gets under way, though, today in New Orleans, as the city simulates a Category 3 storm in order to test its new evacuation plan. Large parts of that plan, though, are still not in place.

A move in Congress to try to protect some animals as the House voted overwhelmingly last night to require that evacuation plans include animals. Countless animals died during Katrina. Many owners, in fact, risked their lives because they wouldn't abandon their pets -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Oil companies that operate platforms in the Gulf of Mexico are nervously awaiting the start of a new hurricane season as well. Drilling operations were severely affected by last year's monster storms, as you well know.

CNN's Randi Kaye got a firsthand look at the extent of the damage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're on our way to the Gulf of Mexico right now. This helicopter is going to take us out to the Ram- Powell oil platform. It's one of about a half a dozen deep-water floating platforms operated by Shell Oil out there. And this will be our first look at the damage that was done and the repairs still under way.

The hour-long flight takes us over the water, which is spotted with oil platforms that survived the terrible sisters -- Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

According to the U.S. Department of Interior, 113 structures were lost in the Gulf. Now, most of those were the older oil platforms that were in shallow water. But when those platforms toppled down, they did major damage to the pipelines and disrupted the flow of oil. Shell's Mars platform, which was the biggest producer in the Gulf was one of the hardest hit. Unable to land there, we stopped at the similar Ram-Powell oil platform.

This is what the rig looks like on Mars. It weighs as much as two 747s. The problem was that during Katrina, it actually toppled over and fell onto the processing area, putting oil production at a standstill.

GREG GUIDRY, SHELL OIL: For Hurricane Katrina, the clamps that clamp the rig down on Mars, they failed. And so the entire rig toppled over.

KAYE (voice-over): For this hurricane season, Shell has designed new clamps to withstand more than 2 million pounds of pressure -- enough to withstand another Katrina.

That's the oil well right there?

GUIDRY: That's it.

KAYE: During last year's storms, drilling rigs also lost their moorings and floated aimlessly, dragging their anchors along the ocean floor.

An underwater robot like this one, never before used so deep, repaired this crack in 2,700 feet of water. Shell says it spent between $250 million and $300 million on Gulf recovery.

GUIDRY: We came back online, and by the end of 2005, we had about 70 percent to 75 percent of our production back on.

KAYE: And finally, starting today, Mars is producing oil and gas again. Before Katrina, it turned out 140,000 barrels of oil each day. It expects to reach those numbers again in June, just as the next hurricane season begins.

Still, 15 percent of the Gulf oil platforms are still down. But with an estimated 71 billion gallons of oil still out there, ready to be drilled, there was no question Shell and its competitors would rebuild. And it hopes when the next Katrina blows through, they'll be ready.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Randi's report first aired on "ANDERSON COOPER 360". You can watch "360" every weeknight, 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific.

CNN's gas gauge for you. The national average, $2.88 for unleaded regular. One month ago it was $2.90, a year ago it was $2.12.

There you go. There are the numbers settling out.

An inventor in Florida, Clearwater, no less, says he had developed a car that runs on water. Well, actually the hydrogen in water.

Remember high school chemistry, H20? That "H" is for hydrogen. Using a process called electrolysis, he separates out the hydrogen, makes gas. You know, think the fuel that hydrogen makes, it's very explosive. Hindenburg, you know.

It will go 100 miles on four ounces of water. This one happens to be a gas water hybrid.

Now, if water should not work, what about the stuff that is thrown away from a fryer? Vegetable oil? A New York State man is powering his car with the same oil to make -- used to make French fries. He starts the car using diesel, then he switches over to veggie oil, and we're not so sure what it does to his cholesterol.

And in California, here's a gas station attendant with a sense of humor. Gas will cost you an arm, a leg, and a first born. The station decided to get rid of the numbers and just call it like they see it. Now, it's become a tourist attraction, as you can see.

He had lost his lease previously, and thus decided to have...

S. O'BRIEN: Nothing left to lose.

M. O'BRIEN: ... a little fun with that. He was free, free to call it like it is.

Coming up, Mexican President Vicente Fox wants to make it easier for Mexicans to become Americans. Yes, that's correct. He will persuade -- the question is, will he persuade anyone on his trip north of the border? Will there be a backlash?

And in our "House Call," find out whether having a healthy baby may depend on what you do before you get pregnant.

Stay with us

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Time for "House Call" this morning. Prospective moms, pay attention. Your health before pregnancy is just as important as how you take care of yourself after you conceive. In fact, sometimes more important.

CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Frances Taysavang is seven months into a healthy pregnancy because of what she did before she conceived. This, despite the fact she has Lupus, a disease that can cause miscarriage.

FRANCES TAYSAVANG, MOTHER-TO-BE: I have chosen to not take Lupus drugs because it was better for my body to just try to go with more of a healthy living type of lifestyle. DR. RAYMOND ALLEN, OB-GYN: If all patients did what Frances did, we'd be in much better shape.

COHEN: But not all patients do. The Centers for Disease Control says, despite major advances in medicine, there have not been corresponding advances in healthy births. Since 1980, there's been a nearly 15 percent increase in babies born underweight and a 26 percent increase in babies born prematurely, and 3 percent come into the world with major birth defects. Statistics that hit home with Dr. Raymond Allen, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies at Northside Hospital in Atlanta.

ALLEN: Every day I see patients that, if we were able to address some pre-conceptual issues, we would have improved the outcome of the pregnancy.

COHEN: Issues like drinking, smoking, keeping medical conditions like diabetes, asthma and epilepsy under control, and taking foalic acid supplements for at least three months before conceiving.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So how have you been feeling?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel great.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Excellent.

COHEN: Dr. Lillian Schapiro, an OB-GYN at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, says women should talk to their doctors before conceiving to make sure any medicines they're taking are safe for a developing fetus. She also advises them to lose any extra weight.

(on camera): Why is it important to be in good shape before you get pregnant?

DR. LILLIAN SCHAPIRO, OB-GYN: Pregnancy puts a big strain on the heart. You're growing an entire person in you. Very shortly after you become pregnant, your blood volume is one and a half times what it normally is. So that's a big strain on your heart.

COHEN (voice over): For those who might have any preconceptions about preconception health, doctors stress it's not just for women with motherhood on their mind.

ALLEN: About 55 percent of pregnancies in this country are not planned. So even if you have no plans to get pregnant, you still have to focus on the "what if," what if I were to get pregnant, have I optmized the situation for my unborn child?

COHEN: And another thing to consider, what makes babies healthy also makes women healthy. Whether or not they ever have a child.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: One of the stars of the TV show "Lost" is headed to jail. We'll tell you about that straight ahead.

And later, we'll talk to Avril Lavigne, the singer. She's out with a movie where she's "Playing Possum".

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Get the latest news every morning in your e-mail. Sign up for AMERICAN MORNING "Quick News" at CNN.com/am.

Still to come on our program, the president of Mexico getting right into the middle of American politics. He may have a good reason, but he is stirring up a little resentment.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: There's the clapping before the bell, and there's the bell. All right. Right on time.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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

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