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Bush Plans for Rose Garden News Conference; Do Athletes Have an Obligation to be Role Models?; Traveling Afghanistan by Foot

Aired June 14, 2006 - 08:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And this time we think it really will happen in the Rose Garden, the president's news conference. Yesterday...
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And at 9:45.

M. O'BRIEN: ... turned out it wasn't quite the Rose Garden. Good morning to you, I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien. In fact, we're learning a lot more about what President Bush is planning in his news conference that we're expecting this morning in about an hour and 15 minutes from now. It was only a few hours ago, in fact, the president returned to Washington, D.C. from his big surprise trip to Baghdad.

Let's get right to CNN's Elaine Quijano. She's live at the White House this morning. Hey, Elaine, good morning.

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

Well, one day after that surprise visit to Baghdad, the president will go before the cameras in the Rose Garden just a short time from now. And we expect him really to focus and keep the spotlight focused on positive developments in Iraq, the formation of a unity government, as well as the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. At the same time, though, however, we expect him to strike a cautious tone, as he has in recent days, about the security situation there.

But certainly, this will be an opportunity for him to share his insights, what it is he was thinking as he sat down with Iraqi leaders for the first time, shaking for the first time the hand of the new Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Malaki. This will be an opportunity for some back and forth for him to share his perspective, as well as for reporters, obviously, to get some questions answered.

This, as you mentioned, is coming one day after that previously scheduled news conference, which we now know was meant to sort of throw reporters off the scent. There was a news conference that was on the schedule yesterday, 2:30 in the Rose Garden, but this one announced just this morning; 9:45 is when that's set to take place -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's sort of hard to make the one in the Rose Garden when you're actually in Baghdad. What do we expect to hear from the president about his impressions of the prime minister? He had said, you know, I wanted to look him in the eye, as for the rationale behind why he would go in person to Baghdad. Has the president really said what he got when he did finally get to look him in the eye?

QUIJANO: Well, at this point, obviously, we'll hear some of that later on this morning, but certainly even going into this trip, senior administration officials here made it very clear that they felt they had someone they could work with this new Iraq prime minister, Nuri al-Malaki.

They felt that, in fact, perhaps, previous leadership there did not have as focused discussed an agenda. And what they like about this new leader is that there are areas very specifically laid out: security, reconstruction, national reconciliation. And so for all of those reasons, they think that they are now able to help and support this now Iraqi government going forward. And that was part of the reason, obviously, that they wanted to have this video conference, but also part of the reason that the president himself wanted to sit down across from these leaders face-to-face so he could have that dialogue with them in person.

S. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano is at the White House this morning. Thanks, Elaine.

Be sure to stay with CNN for live coverage of the president's news conference. Again, we're expecting that at 9:45 a.m. Eastern time in the Rose Garden.

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Ben Roethlisberger, still in the hospital this morning, in fair condition. Might be released by the end of the week. He's on the mend, doing better after that scary helmetless motorcycle crash on Monday in Pittsburgh. The Steelers' star broke several facial bones and some would say an obligation to young fans who worship the ground he treads upon.

Christine Brennan is an award-winning sports columnist for "USA Today." She's also the author of a new book, "Best Seat in the House: A Father, A Daughter, A Journey Through Sports," which is a lot about role models. We'll talk about the book in a moment, but Christine joins us from Chicago now.

Let's talk about Ben Roethlisberger. Before we get started here, last year on ESPN, Roethlisberger was asked about riding without a helmet. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN ROEHTLISBERGER, STEELERS QUARTERBACK: It's not the law. If it was a law, I'd definitely have one on every time I rode. But it's not the law, so I know I don't have to. And you're just more free when you're out there and there's no helmet on.

(END VIDEO CLIP) M. O'BRIEN: If you're the owner of the Steelers and Mr. Rooney or you're the coach, Bill Cowan (sic) -- Cowher -- and you hear that kind of thing, you want to tell him to put a helmet on, right?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, "USA TODAY" SPORTS COLUMNIST: Well, and they certainly warned him on that, Miles. And you know what, it's a wonderful window for all of us into the mindset of a 24-year-old superstar athlete. You'd think this young man, Ben Roethlisberger, would have his feet firmly planted on the ground and would understand what he has to lose. And yet here he is, living on the edge, looking for the adventure off the field of play the same way he looks for it on the field of play. And that's so illuminating of how he was being so risky and potentially friterring away not only his career, but thankfully it wasn't his life.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, there's a none too subtle lesson there for all of our kids. What do you think it is?

BRENNAN: Well, I think it's certainly is to appreciate what you have, to don't take risks. And if -- what I'm concerned about, Miles, is that right now Ben Roethlisberger is the anti-role model for kids. I mean, you know, we tell our kids to put their helmets on when they ride their bicycles, you know, look both ways before you cross the street, all of those things that you do. And then you see this, and kids see this.

And let's hope that once he recovers and is healthy and hopefully back playing football that he dedicates the rest of his career, maybe his life, to safety on the roads and to children's safety. Because he has made a huge mistake and I believe he owes that to the children of America now.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, that would be a good outcome, a silver lining, if you will. Let's talk, though, about the larger issue of athletes as role models. Charles Barkley, former NBA star, famously in an ad recently. Let's listen to the ad for a second.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES BARKLEY, FORMER NBA STAR: I am not a role model. I am not paid to be a role model. I'm paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: When he says that, he's got a point there a little bit when he puts it to parents, saying you should be role models, as well. But don't athletes have that responsibility, as well?

BRENNAN: Oh, sure they do, Miles. Absolutely. In a perfect world, parents, coaches, teachers, neighbors, friends, uncles, aunts, they would be the role models. But we know our society today, it's a very different world. There's a lot of kids that come home and don't see their parents for -- until 8:00 at night. A lot of kids who have a single parent home. And what are kids doing? They're watching sports on television. And so absolutely, athletes owe it to children. And I think Charles Barkley probably wouldn't even say that today. That was an edgy commercial designed to attract attention, which, of course, it did.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, no, he backtracked off it a little bit, in fairness to Charles.

All right, let's talk about your book now. Because when we first started talking about doing this, it was going to a Father's Day segment, a and it's -- but this is not too off the mark here, because we're talking about the role model in your life, who was your father. And what's interesting about it is you've heard father/son stories where sports binds them. Not too many father/daughter stories where sports is the theme that runs between them. Tell us about your relationship with your father.

BRENNAN: Miles, my dad was way ahead of his time. I was growing up in the '60s and the '70s. Girls were not encouraged to play sports back then. But my dad, in Toledo, Ohio -- my dad, Jim Brennan; my mom, too, Betty Brennan -- both encouraged me. I'm the oldest of four kids. My mom said I was born size 6X and kept right on growing.

And I wanted to throw the baseball with my dad in the backyard and so he said, sure, honey, you can do that. And for my eighth birthday, I didn't want dolls, I wanted a baseball mitt. My dad went right out and got it for me, taught me how to keep score of games. As soon as I got old enough, took me and then my younger siblings to the University of Toledo football games. We had season tickets. Michigan football games, season tickets. The book title, "Best Seat in the House," refers to the fact that, sitting next to my dad, and even in Michigan stadium in the end zone, always the best seat in the house.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, the lesson here for parents is good -- is, you really can't pigeonhole your kids. You can't put them in a box, can you?

The lesson here for parents is good. You really can't pigeon hole your kids, you can't put them in a box, can you?

BRENNAN: No, and my dad was a (INAUDIBLE) Republican from Ohio, voted for Goldwater and Nixon, probably Dewey, even, and here he was, I think, the biggest feminist I knew. As you know, he's passed away now. But the way he raised me, the way he treated my two sisters and my brother, was extraordinary.

And he always told me this ain't no dress rehearsal. You know, this is life, go for it. And I think, in many ways, with my column, with this "USA Today" and this wonderful career I've been so fortunate to have, Miles, it does come from my dad and my mom and their encouragement, at a time when girls were not being encouraged to take untraditional paths. But I did, of course.

M. O'BRIEN: It's inspiring story for fathers, daughters and mothers, too. "Best Seat in the House" is the title; Christine Brennan, the author. Thanks for being with us. She's also a "USA Today" columnist, as you know. We appreciate your dropping by.

BRENNAN: Thanks.

S. O'BRIEN: I love how she beams when she talks about her dad.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, you can see the glow there.

S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. That's so nice.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Yesterday, the White House was promising us a Rose Garden. Instead, they delivered the Green Zone. The president will, however, in about an hour's time, offer up a news conference from the Rose Garden. We believe that to be true this morning. And he'll talk about his trip to Baghdad, of course, and in general the war in Iraq.

S. O'BRIEN: Also this morning, we'll meet the first tourist, as he calls himself, to enter Afghanistan after the Taliban's fall. He survived a 600-mile trek on foot across hostile terrain. We'll tell you how he did it. That's ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: In January of 2002, the first tourist to enter Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban set out on a harrowing journey. Journalist Rory Stewart was determined to walk 600 miles across the vast countryside. He did it in just 32 days by using a combination of wit and knowledge and perseverance.

Rory Stewart joins us from London this morning to talk about his extraordinary adventure and his book, which is called "The Places in Between."

Nice to see you, Rory. Thanks for talking with us.

RORY STEWART, AUTHOR, "THE PLACES IN BETWEEN": Thank you for having me on.

S. O'BRIEN: Why would you want to do this trek -- do this trek, we should mention, in the winter, through feet snow, exactly at the time when the Taliban had just fallen and there was a new government that was only in place for a couple of weeks? Why?

STEWART: I've always been very bad at answering that question, but I think for me it was a great opportunity to look at the landscape, to look at the villages, to -- for somebody like me, who'd lived for most of my life in the Islamic world, to get out of cities and engage with one of the most beautiful landscapes and countries in the world.

S. O'BRIEN: We see the pictures in your book, as well, and we're showing some of them and sharing them with our audience. Truly, truly beautiful. You were advised early on that this trip would be the last trip you'd ever make, that this trip would kill you. Why didn't you heed any warnings from people who would sort of be in the know on these things?

STEWART: It's very difficult, because I think when people give you advice on that kind of thing, they tend to be overcautious. I'd been walking already for a year and a half. I crossed around Pakistan, India and Nepal on foot. And I stayed in about 450 village houses by the time I entered Afghanistan. So I thought I had some advantages. I was fit, I spoke the local language, and I loved the people and I reckoned I'd be able to make it.

S. O'BRIEN: You decided to walk from Herat to Kabul. Tell me a little about your adventure and what you saw along the way. I know you got some accompaniment that you really weren't crazy about sort of early on.

STEWART: Well, it turned out that I was a little bit naive. I entered Afghanistan just a few weeks after the Taliban had fallen, and I got to Herat about three weeks after a new government had been sworn in. And I was allocated three security men to walk with me, who I was desperate to get rid of, because they kept threatening small children with guns. And fortunately, they weren't very fit and their feet got blistered, so they left me.

I then found another strange companion in the form of a dog who I met in a village who'd had his tail chopped off and his ears chopped off and his teeth knocked out. And he walked then with me. He was about the size of a small pony. And we crossed some quite steep and mountainous terrain. Of course, the snow was about a meter or two meters deep through most of the country at the time of year.

I was beaten up by Hazari (ph) militia and I had some problem from the Taliban as I was approaching Kabul. But basically speaking, people were incredibly hospitable and generous to me in almost every village along the way.

S. O'BRIEN: So what was the lesson that you were trying -- or the message that you were trying to seek out as you went on your adventure? Was it to find out how people felt about the Taliban that had been, at that time, brought to its knees? Or was it to find out about human nature, sort of people on a bigger scale?

STEWART: I'm very, very interested in both. I'm a -- was a foreign service officer and a diplomat in the Middle East, in the Islamic world, and I was very interested in how people were responding to war and to the Taliban and to September 11th, which, of course, was just a couple of months before I did the journey.

But I'm also very, very interested in village culture and the way in which basic traditions -- generosity, hospitality, enthusiasm; the way in which I can turn up with no introduction at somebody's house and immediately be taken in and given bread and tea and put up for the night. So for me, it was a revelation in every kind of way.

S. O'BRIEN: The book is called "The Places In Between," and the cover shows Rory walking along with some of his companions, who he tried to shake early on in his journey. It's a great read. Rory Stewart of -- the author joining us this morning. Thank you for being with us.

STEWART: Thank you very much.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: What's his next trip going to be, a Carnival cruise? I mean...

S. O'BRIEN: He lives in Kabul now. He fell in love with Afghanistan and decided that Kabul would be the place that he would live.

M. O'BRIEN: What a story.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Back with more in a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up in just a moment -- yes, we will leave it right there -- top stories this morning including the president's news conference. We're expecting it in just about 45 minutes. We'll bring that to you live when it happens.

And CNN's John King tells us what it was like to fly into Baghdad under secrecy along with the president.

Also in Baghdad, Iraqis are launching a massive security crack- down. We've got details on that.

And comedian Jerry Lewis recovering from a mild heart attack.

Two teenagers face assault charges for fights they recorded and then posted on myspace.com. Those stories, all ahead as we continue right here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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