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American Morning

Pressuring Congress; Fleet Week Cook-Off; New Orleans Aquarium; Remember The Children

Aired May 25, 2006 - 07:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening this morning.
The Senate expected to pass an immigration reform bill today. It includes a controversial guest worker program. Major differences with the immigration bill passed by the House must still be worked out.

Immigration at the center of Mexican President Vicente Fox's tour of the U.S. In California today he's talking with state lawmakers and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

And House leaders on both sides of the aisle are united against the FBI. They say the agents upset the constitutional balance of power when they removed papers from Representative William Jefferson's office.

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien. Glad to have you with us.

And lawmakers are in an uproar over that whole situation we just told you about. They see it as an unconstitutional tilt in the balance of power. We told you about William Jefferson's office, that search, and how it really was unprecedented. And there's more to add to the fire this morning. According to the newspaper "Roll Call," the FBI will soon be interviewing politicians on Capitol Hill to see if they leaked word of that domestic spying program to reporters. John Bresnahan is the lead reporter for "Roll Call" on this story. He's got the scoop for us this morning.

John, good to have you with us.

JOHN BRESNAHAN, "ROLL CALL": Good morning.

MILES O'BRIEN: Tell us, is there any strong reason to believe, has there been a lot of reason to believe, that lawmakers on, either the House or Senate, were, in fact, leakers to originally "The New York Times" indicating that there was this NSA domestic spying program?

BRESNAHAN: No, there's no evidence that I'm aware of that the Capitol Hill, Congress, any members of Congress were the source of this leak. But I think it's a pretty widespread investigation right now. So the FBI is looking to talk to three reported members of Congress today.

MILES O'BRIEN: What members of Congress are they interested in talking to? Or do you know yet?

BRESNAHAN: Well, right now we're a little unsure about the Senate, but they've definitely broached the subject with the House. We spoke to the House intelligence chairman, Peter Hoekstra, and the ranking Democrat on the committee Jane Harman, and they had both aware that the FBI had requested interviews. Particularly Mr. Hoekstra. He even hired a personal lawyer to deal with any eventual interview. So they're going to take this pretty seriously.

MILES O'BRIEN: OK. And this is -- given the context of what we just talked about with William Jefferson's office being searched and the records being seized. There's a lot of concern inside the House right now among leaders, and rank and file, and also in the Senate for that matter, that this is overreaching authority and tilting the balance of power. What are you hearing from members of Congress?

BRESNAHAN: I've never seen an atmosphere quite like this. Kind of the tension between the Justice Department and members of Congress. And we have three different areas right now. We have the Jefferson raid, of course. Then we had the case of former Congressman Duke Cunningham of California. The U.S. attorney's office in San Diego is seeking the information from the House on his activities there. And now we have this NSA leak issue. So I think members feel hemmed in. They feel like, you know, they're getting hit by the Justice Department on all sides. And it's leading to a lot of unhappy folks up on Capitol Hill.

MILES O'BRIEN: I'm curious if it's limited -- if their discontent is limited to just the Justice Department or if it's the administration as a whole. Let's listen to the president back in December, see what he had to say about the NSA leaks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is a shameful act by somebody who has got secrets of the United States government and feels like they need to disclose them publicly. We're at war and we must protect America's secrets. And so the Justice Department, I presume, will proceed forward with a full investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILES O'BRIEN: So are lawmakers mad at the president and the administration, or is it limited to the Justice Department and the FBI?

BRESNAHAN: Well, in this particular case, I think they're more concerned about Justice. Again, now, members -- no one is saying they wouldn't do an interview and there are no subpoenas or anything like that at this point. But I think they want to, as, you know, Chairman Hoekstra said, they want to assist in the investigation, but they also want to be sure to preserve the prerogatives of Congress.

I think unhappiness with Bush on a lot of other issues. I mean there's Iraq, there's, you know, immigration, there's people in his own party, there's, you know, spending issues. There's a whole laundry list of items. And now you throw in the Justice Department who, in their defense, they're doing their job. They were asked to search for the source of this leak and they're looking for it. But now that it's spread to Capitol Hill, I think it's making some folks uneasy there.

MILES O'BRIEN: A lot of people watching this would say that lawmakers are trying to use the Constitution to set themselves above and aside of the law. No one's above the law in this country, right?

BRESNAHAN: No, they're not. And I don't think members are really making that argument. I think what they're trying to say is that they are a co-equal branch of government and that what we do now, what we do today has implications far down the road. So even, you know, future presidents, future congresses, we're setting precedents here. So we have to think about the balance of power between the three branches of government.

MILES O'BRIEN: "Roll Call's" John Bresnahan, good to have you back on the program. Good job on the story.

BRESNAHAN: Thanks, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Also happening "In America" today.

A Pakistani man will spend the rest of his life in a U.S. prison. He was convicted on Wednesday of conspiracy to blow up a New York City subway station. The plot was in retaliation for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.

In Georgia, a little girl has died. The man accused of hitting her with his car is now facing a new charge of murder. Authorities in Covington, near Atlanta, say 46-year-old Lanny Barnes had a clear intent to hurt somebody when he hit two sisters and three small children in a McDonald's parking lot on Tuesday. The two-year-old died on Wednesday.

Two New York teenagers arrested in California for allegedly trying to shake down the website myspace.com. The two are accused of hacking into the site, stealing personal information, then trying to extort $150,000.

Bill and Melinda Gates are flexing their financial muscle to battle tuberculosis in developing countries. Their philanthropic foundation has a $29 billion endowment and they're giving $104 million to the Global Alliance for TB drug development. The money is going to be used to develop faster acting TB drugs.

A mercury contamination scare in Durham, North Carolina, to tell you about. At least four elementary school students may have been exposed. The school was closed on Wednesday while health officials investigated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very upset about it. My youngin (ph) has a liver disease. For him to even come in contact with it or even be that close to it could hurt hill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Officials say the mercury may have been spread by an air conditioning technician or maybe a school janitor.

And new videotape to share with you this morning. This is Barbaro. There you go. Look, new pics. The race horse is being treated outside Philadelphia for a broken ankle bone suffered in the Preakness last weekend. Barbaro's vets say he's got lots of fans and those fans are sending apples and carrots so that he has something to munch on while he is recovering.

MILES O'BRIEN: They like peppermints too. Did you ever . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Horses like them. No, I never gave my horse a peppermint.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, they like peppermints.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Really. Who knew?

MILES O'BRIEN: I would (ph). We had quite a spectacle in the apartment yesterday overlooking the Hudson River.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Really? What was that?

MILES O'BRIEN: That was one of the ships that just went by. And I thought, oh, gosh, we're being invaded. No, it's fleet week. It's fleet week and . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, this is the best time in the city.

MILES O'BRIEN: It was really cool to see this. They came up the Hudson River, went pretty much to the George Washington Bridge and then went right back down. The flags flaring. They're all in their dress whites out there standing at attention. It's an annual event and it's not just the U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard, but it also involves other countries as they come in and dock, you know, on the west side of Manhattan and basically . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And beautiful weather for it yesterday.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, it's spectacular.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And this week it's supposed to be -- oh, sorry (ph).

MILES O'BRIEN: There might be a little bit of partying that goes on in Manhattan in conjunction with this I'm told.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And all those handsome sailors walking around the streets. MILES O'BRIEN: I think if you see a guy in uniform, you're supposed to buy him a beer. Isn't that the custom? I'm pretty sure that's how it works. Roger Clark with our sister station New York 1 . . .

Soledad's like, are you sure?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I don't know. More than willing to do my part for America, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: He's in Times Square.

Roger, will you settle this for us? You're supposed to buy a beer if you see a Navy personnel? Isn't that the deal?

ROGER CLARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, I mean, you know, you get him a beer or, you know, if they want a soft drink instead or, you know . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: Any sort of beverage. Yes.

CLARK: But, yeah, definitely, you've got to hook them up. You have to hook up the guys and women in uniform when they're in town. Definitely.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, how's it going so far?

CLARK: It's great. I mean this is -- this is one of the events that's taking place. And it's kind of cool. Weber grills does this. They have a cookbook and it's called, go figure, a Salute to Steak and it's "Command of the Grill." And it's really cool. All the sales from the cookbook go towards helping charities that help families of Marines who have been injured or killed in battle. And what they're doing is they have 10 Marines from all around the country and they are cooking up their best recipes for steak on grills. Which, you know, you didn't have to twist my arm, Miles and Soledad, to get me to cover this story.

Look at this tasty, tasty meats right there. And I don't care how early it is. You can give me steak any time of day. That's looking pretty good. And basically these 10 Marines -- actually it's nine men, one woman -- are going to go at it. They're going to cook right now and then they're going to be judged later. And the winner gets like a prize package worth $5,000. You get a brand new Weber grill, which is cool. You've got to have a -- you know, any new grill, that's a good thing. And they also get some cool steak cooking lessons.

MILES O'BRIEN: Hey, a quick question for you. If you can pan the camera there. What is the appropriate uniform for grilling if you're a Marine? Is it the camis (ph)?

CLARK: Yes, that's what they're wearing. So apparently when you cook, you have to wear camis. That's the rule.

MILES O'BRIEN: So you can sneak up on your prey that way, the steaks that way, when you got the camis.

CLARK: Exactly.

MILES O'BRIEN: You can barely see them, right, you know?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: No, they're on the grill already. That's ridiculous.

CLARK: Yes, you can see them. Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, I think as part of your research, you're going to have to do a little sampling.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Absolutely.

MILES O'BRIEN: Let us know how it goes.

CLARK: I'm not leaving without steak.

MILES O'BRIEN: I notice those steak were very well lined up. Almost at attention. Kind of a Marine thing, I guess.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: All good order.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right, Chad Myers, what's the forecast for fleet week?

(WEATHER REPORT)

MILES O'BRIEN: All right, Andy Serwer.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you guys. Congress is going to take up the issue of Internet gambling. One point, is poker a game of skill or a game of chance? A critical issue there.

MILES O'BRIEN: Both, I'd say, Monty. No. No.

SERWER: We'll talk about it.

MILES O'BRIEN: Also ahead on the program, CNN's Sean Callebs live from New Orleans for us.

Sean, what do you have?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Check this out, Miles. The aquarium is back up and running. After Katrina, you wouldn't have recognized this. This was a mess. Some 10,000 animals died. Not only are we here, but we'll take you to the Caribbean as well, another beautiful area of this aquarium, and it is key to bringing tourists back and we'll explain why and we'll introduce you to all kinds of great animals later on, Miles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: There's something fishy in New Orleans today and that's good. The city's Aquarium of the Americas, which lost more than 10,000 fish as a result of Katrina, reopening today. CNN's Sean Callebs is there.

Sean, good morning.

CALLEBS: Good morning to you, Miles. Now pay attention because I'm going to quiz you at the end of this.

In this huge exhibit you see -- he just took off. There's a sea turtle in here, some tarpon and an alligator guard. Those three animals were able to survive when they lost power. I'm going to ask you why and you have to tell me at the end of this little segment.

Well, check it out. There you see just an amazing exhibit. Here's the sea turtle coming down now. His name is Midas. Back there a sand tiger shark. Very aggressive. They're going to feed that thing a little bit later in the day and we will walk you through that. It's apparently something. You feed the animal with tongs. Often they'll grab the tongs right out of the feeder's hand.

The reason this is so amazing, August 29th, when the storm came through, so many animals in here died because they lost power. They had a backup generator, but the fuel line in the generator went out. Well, they have been cleaning, working for months and months and months. We actually had some video of some of the animals that were evacuated right after. We know the sea turtle, some dolphins were taken out of here as well. But they have done an amazing job.

Want to walk you over to the Caribbean exhibit. This looks amazing. That's a plexiglass sort of tunnel area. As we walk through, you can see all kinds of fish from down in the Caribbean. You really kind of get the sense that you're there. This place has done an amazing job.

And it is so critical to the tourism industry here between the aquarium and the zoo and the other Audubon exhibits. It brings in $330 million a year. So this thing could not get started up soon enough. It's going to be -- it opens tomorrow and they're really counting on this to bring people back into the city for the summer.

OK, Miles, what's your answer? Why do you think the tarpon, why do you think the sea turtle and the alligator guard were able to live?

MILES O'BRIEN: I'm going to guess, in the case of the turtle, because it breathes air.

CALLEBS: All three of them, all three of them (INAUDIBLE) air.

MILES O'BRIEN: And you say they're all air breathers. And, as a result, I didn't know the -- is it tarpon. What did you say?

CALLEBS: Tarpon. That's this big metallic looking thing up here. It's actually kind of interesting. They gulp air.

MILES O'BRIEN: Tarpons breath air. I didn't know that. So as long as you can get -- because, obviously, the water was not good. But if they could, you know, at least poke up and breathe some air.

So I did OK?

CALLEBS: You did very well.

One other thing, you see this?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

CALLEBS: This PVC pipe, very simple little piece of ping here, but one of the most important devices out here. Because when the divers go in to clean the tank and the sharks get near, they use this to poke it away to keep the shark away. This shark is named Sid Vicious (ph), the most aggressive one in the tank. And we'll toy with him a little later on this morning.

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, yes, I'd like to see that Sean. Why don't you get the scuba gear on, get that PVC pipe and we'll see how you do.

CALLEBS: (INAUDIBLE) in there.

MILES O'BRIEN: With that, we'll be must see viewing. All right, thank you, Sean Callebs in New Orleans. Glad to report that little piece of good news.

Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Wow, did Sean just say he's getting in the tank with the shark?

MILES O'BRIEN: I think he might have.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Right. Sean, you are . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes. I think we might have goaded him that way.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You're the man, Sean. You're so brave. I'm dying to see that.

A new study out says chocolate might be bad for your tummy, good for your brain, though. That is according to this new study from the Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia. Basically what they did was feed a bunch of people chocolate, found it improved their memory, improved their attention span, improved their reaction time, improved their problem solving ability. Hallelujah.

SERWER: Great news, yes, right. Best news all morning.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Why are we not leading with this story today, folk?

SERWER: Yes, hello.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Milk chocolate apparently works the very best. Business news now. Andy's got that.

Good morning.

SERWER: Good morning, Soledad.

We're talking about . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Some good news to more good news.

SERWER: Yes, more good news. Well, I guess sort of right down the middle. This is about online gambling. And, you know, it's a very controversial subject. Congress today is going to be hashing over a bill that would ban online gambling. That's been introduced by Bob Goodlatte, a Republican congressman from Virginia. This is the fourth time he's tried to introduce this bill.

And interestingly, this is tied to the Jack Abramoff scandal. You may remember the lobbyist who got in all kinds of hot water. Earlier he represented a client that had tried to ban this previous iteration of this bill and $50,000 was funneled to the wife of an aide of Tom DeLay. So all involved in all kinds of scandals here.

It's unclear whether this game will -- whether this bill, I should say, will pass. And, you know, this is really a horse that has left the barn, wouldn't you say, Soledad? I mean . . .

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes. Well, plus the Internet -- it's so wide reaching, the Internet.

SERWER: Yes. And if you ban it here in the United States, there are going to be overseas sites. In fact, most of the sites are overseas right now. So I think Congress would have a tough time regulating this.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks.

SERWER: Thank you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A short break. We're back in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Here's a startling statistic. Every day 2,000 children are reported missing in the United States. You might be noticing that throughout the show we've been showing you photos of missing children. Today is National Missing Children's Day. So what can you do to help? Ernie Allen is the president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He's in Washington this morning.

Ernie, nice to see you again. Thanks for talking with us.

ERNIE ALLEN, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN: Thank you, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Two thousand a day. That number sounds so incredibly high. Break it down for me. How many would you estimate are runaways? And how many would you estimate are children who are snatched by a parent? And how many are stranger kidnappings? ALLEN: Well, when you look at the annual numbers, 800,000 children a year are reported missing. The largest number, probably as many as half of those, are runaways. About a quarter, about 200,00, are taken by parents or other family members. But the Justice Department estimates that as many as 58,000 a year are abducted by non-family members. So this is a serious problem.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh, it's just terrifying. You've got some tips. And I think they're pretty basic tips and I want to show them to folks. You say never let young children go places alone. Know where your kids are at all times. Never leave your kid in the car alone. These seem so simple and yet do you constantly see children snatched in these stranger abductions because the parents just fail to do these simple things?

ALLEN: Well, it's very basic. And we're not trying to frighten parents, we're just saying you need to be alert and aware. You think about the awful cases like Carly Brucia in Sarasota who was abducted by a car wash. The camera captured it. There's comparative safety in numbers. Parents can't be with their kids every minute, but at least they should be with other kids. Use the buddy system.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: How do you tell a five-year-old or a four-year- old or a six-year-old how to stay safe? I mean when I try to tell my daughter about, you know, avoiding strangers, we walk down the streets of Manhattan and she'll point to people and say, there's a stranger, there's a stranger. Well, you know, of course, we're on a crowded street in the middle of Manhattan. I'm not sure I got the message across that I was trying to send.

ALLEN: Well, with very young children, there's no substitute for parental supervision. But at a minimum, young children need to know who they are, what their address is, their phone number. They need to be able to provide key information if they have to. And then as kids begin to get a little older, into those elementary school years, what we say to parents is, talk to your kids about their safety and then practice what you teach. Roll play so that your children can apply it in a real world situation.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Tell me a little bit about the lessons learned in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. And even -- I mean, you've had such success. Last time we spoke on TV, certainly, it was really to celebrate that you'd finally accounted for the last child. What did you learn in that situation that you're applying today to all the other missing children's cases?

ALLEN: Well, I think we learned two basic things. One is that there's really power in the media. What you and CNN did to mobilize the American public, to look at the pictures, to think about the information, it really reunited those families. And we say to families, have a good current photo and be prepared. Things can happen. Your family can be divided in a way that you don't anticipate.

And then secondly, we really look at the power of information. We search databases. We captured information. We sent people into the shelters to take those pictures. When you're ready, when you're prepared, when moms and dads have photos and information so that if their child disappears you don't have to manufacture it overnight, it's far more likely that we're going to be able to bring these children home.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Amber Alerts have been very successful. Now you can get the Amber Alerts wirelessly. Miles was telling everybody how you can just get your cell phone -- program it to come through on your cell phone.

ALLEN: It's terrific and it doesn't cost anything. Two hundred million Americans are now using cell phones and wireless technology. We want them to go to their carriers or go to wireless AmberAlerts.org, sign up. It will be targeted geographically. But if a child is abducted in your area, you can get that information real time, instantly, through text messaging on your cell phone. Every person, average people can make a difference in bringing a child home.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We certainly have told a lot of stories about average people, regular people who really helped out and saved lives.

Ernie Allen, nice to see you as always. Thanks for talking with us this morning.

ALLEN: Thank you, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And we want to remind you, you can get involved by calling the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's hot line at 1-800-THE-LOST, or go to the website www.missingkids.com.

A short break. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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