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American Morning
North Korea Long Range Missile Test; Al Qaeda-Linked Group Claims Responsibility for Abduction of Two U.S. Soldiers; Cell Phone Ring Tone that Only Kids Can Hear
Aired June 19, 2006 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Just moments ago the bell rang on Wall Street, trading on the Dow beginning at 11,014 after a nearly unchanged close on Friday which was good news considering the week we had.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Oh yeah, good news following a whole lot of bad news.
O'BRIEN: Yeah, brutal and ugly.
ROBERTS: That's the way the market is.
O'BRIEN: Yes, it goes up, it goes down.
Welcome back everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
ROBERTS: And I'm John Roberts in for Miles O'Brien this week. Let's get you caught up on the latest headlines. Carol Costello is in the newsroom with the latest. Good morning Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I am, good morning John, good morning to all of you. A group linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq is claiming responsibility for the abduction of two U.S. soldiers. The claim posted on a website earlier this morning. U.S. and Iraqi forces are intensifying the search for those two missing troops. They were last seen Friday after an attack at a checkpoint killed a third soldier. In the meantime another posting from that same group says it is behind the kidnapping of four Russian diplomats. Officials are now investigating.
In Baghdad a car bombing has killed at least four people and wounded nearly a dozen others. Iraqi police say insurgents may have been targeting an Iraqi army patrol. And a prosecutor in the Saddam Hussein trial is asking for the death penalty for the former Iraqi leader. The trial was adjourned until July 10th, the defense is expected to present its closing arguments at that time.
President Bush is about to make history. He will address graduates at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York. He'll be the first sitting president to do so in more than six decades. The commencement speech due to begin in just about 45 minutes.
And the Red Cross is opening up two shelters for fire evacuees outside of Sedona, Arizona. A wild fire has reportedly destroyed about 3,000 acres now. Officials evacuated about 400 homes and businesses last night. No word on when this fire will be under control and boy, Chad, it is hot in Arizona.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Is there another standoff with North Korea around the corner. This time tensions are rising over a possible long range missile test. Reports this morning say the missile is fueled and on the launch pad. And State TV is saying North Korea has a right to get tough with the U.S. CNN's Kathleen Koch live at the White House for us this morning. Hey Kathleen, good morning.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. And the concern comes again from the satellite images that as you described do show apparently a long range ballistic missile that has been fully fueled and therefore could be launched any time really within the next month, though right now today weather conditions in the region are not ideal. There is fog and rain. The Bush administration's watching these developments in North Korea very carefully with a lot of concern. One of these missiles could reach not only Alaska but also parts of Asia. Parts of Russia. So the White House is calling on North Korea to stand by its prior commitments to stop missile testing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The North Koreans declared in 1999 a moratorium on missile testing. This was after the 1998 one which led President Clinton to send warships to the area. We certainly hope and expect that the North Korean government will continue to abide by that.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Now this possible test comes as the six country talks on North Korea's nuclear program have been stalled for months. There are some U.S. officials who believe that this possible test could be nothing more than a bluff, that North Korea is engaging in to gain attention and leverage in those talks. Soledad?
O'BRIEN: Kathleen Koch at the White House for us. Kathleen thanks.
KOCH: You bet.
O'BRIEN: John?
ROBERTS: A disturbing claim on the web right now about those two American soldiers missing in Iraq. A group with links to Al Qaeda in Iraq says they captured the soldiers but there is no confirmation of that and the U.S. military still lists them as missing, not captured. CNN's Arwa Damon is live in Baghdad right now. Arwa, what's the latest from where you are?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John, as you just mentioned a group believed to be linked to Al Qaeda, the Mujahadin Shore Council in Iraq did post that claim. However the U.S. military is listing these two soldiers as missing as opposed to captured. They are reported to be duty status and whereabouts unknown. Now the Department of Defense did release their names on Sunday.
Private first class Thomas Tucker, 25 years old and private first class Christian Menchaca, 23 years old. The two went missing after their checkpoint came under attack south of Baghdad in an area known as the triangle of death. U.S. troops nearby reported hearing gunfire and explosions. They called in quick reaction forces. When those quick reaction forces arrived on scene they found one soldier dead and two missing. The U.S. military said that it would spare no effort to find its two soldiers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, MULTINATIONAL FORCE/IRAQ: Over 8,000 U.S. military and Iraqi army and police are working together conducting an intensive circle operation to determine the status of these soldiers. We are using every means at our disposal.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
DAMON: And by every means he means divers, unmanned aerial vehicles, planes, this is a massive search operation. So far they have gone through 12 villages in that area. But it's not an operation that has been uneventful. There have been clashes. The U.S. military is calling these harassment attacks, harassing attacks. So far seven U.S. soldiers have been wounded, three suspected insurgents killed and another 34 have been detained. John?
ROBERTS: Arwa it also looks like it's shaping up to be another typical day in Baghdad with more violence. What do we know about these latest attacks?
DAMON: That's right, we had an attack here this morning. The intended target of this car bomb in eastern Baghdad was an Iraqi army patrol. It missed its attack and four civilians were killed and another 10 were wounded in the capital this morning. This follows a very violent weekend in which at least 50 Iraqis were killed across Iraq. On Saturday, in Baghdad, alone, nine car bombs detonated, all of this despite a huge crackdown, a security crackdown by Iraq's government in the capital. John?
ROBERTS: Arwa Damon in Baghdad with the latest for us. As always Arwa, stay safe. Thanks. Soledad?
O'BRIEN: The satellite sisters, five sisters from Fairfield, Connecticut who host the most widely syndicated women's talk show in the nation are now reaching out to help their other sisters in Baghdad. Two of the five sisters join us this morning to talk about Radio Al Mahaba. We have Julie Dolan and also Liz Dolan. Nice to see you guys, thanks for being with us. It's a pretty amazing project. But explain for me first what exactly is Radio Al Mahaba?
JULIE DOLAN: Radio Al Mahaba is the only women's talk radio show in Iraq. And you can just imagine what an important life line this is for women -- for Iraqi women. Where you have an illiteracy rate of over 75 percent to be able to get news, talk, entertainment, music, to be able to have a call-in show where they can call in about their family, about security, about politics.
O'BRIEN: Sometimes the only way they can really communicate with each other.
JULIE DOLAN: Right, they are allowed out on the street less and less and that's why radio becomes more and more important.
O'BRIEN: Is the problem just that the war has damaged their broadcasters and their transmitters, things like that, or are they being targeted?
LIZ DOLAN: It's a little bit of both Soledad. A roadside bomb blew up their transmitter and a young boy was killed in the process. So ever since then they have been using a rented transmitter. And we just heard this weekend that the staff of Radio Al Mahaba which is just 30 men and women trying to keep a women's radio station on the air, they've donated their June salaries to the transmittal rental.
O'BRIEN: They're all working without any pay?
LIZ DOLAN: They are all working without any pay and a great danger to themselves. They covered the election, they covered the constitution debate. They even ran some of their own voter registration programs. So that's why we think it's so important to keep Radio Al Mahaba talking.
O'BRIEN: I read that nobody has any kind of protection or flak jackets.
JULIE DOLAN: They don't have the same protection that you would have at CNN or any western journalist over there but they really are risking their lives to just be able to tell the story of what's going on in Iraq because they think it's so important and because they believe in the future of Iraq.
O'BRIEN: You're trying to raise $100,000 to help out Radio Al Mahaba. What does $100,000 buy?
LIZ DOLAN: It seems like a good deal, doesn't it?
O'BRIEN: It doesn't sound like a lot of money. I mean really, but not a lot.
LIZ DOLAN: That's why we thought it was worth speaking out about. For $100,000 we can get a transmitter and we can keep the station on the air for a while. And it allows the shows that go out to the women now to reach a wider audience around Iraq. The problem with what they have now is that because of the damaged transmitter very few women can actually hear the show. For $100,000 it seems like it is important to keep women engaged in the political process and the democratization of Iraq. It's a small price to pay.
O'BRIEN: You're going to use your platform tonight when you win a big award. What are you getting?
JULIE DOLAN: We are, we're winning the Gracie Allen Award for outstanding talk show. Not bad ah?
O'BRIEN: No, no, not bad at all. That's from the American Women in Radio and Television, we should mention, the Gracie's.. Do you think, I mean you're going to have an interesting audience to be pitching this idea to.
JULIE DOLAN: Right. These are women in media, these are women that care about having women's voices heard in media. We take it for granted in the U.S. that we have this vibrant free press but that's so important to democracy and so to give the Iraqi women that opportunity we're hoping that they're going to be very receptive to our appeals.
LIZ DOLAN: We'll also use our radio show to talk to all of the women that listen to us every day. So all this week we'll have guests from Radio Al Mahaba on the air and people can go to our website to donate money.
O'BRIEN: Theoretically, I mean, people could give just a few bucks and actually make a decent dent in it.
LIZ DOLAN: Right. It's a small number.
O'BRIEN: When you get the money -- I assume you're going to get the money. Are you guys going to go to Baghdad?
LIZ DOLAN: Julie and I would love to go to Baghdad. The other three sisters will stay home and do the show from the United States of America. But we would love to be able to go, we'd love to be able to just walk into Radio Al Mahaba, watch what they do, hear them on the air. Because it's such an important thing that they're doing. And we want them to really feel our support.
O'BRIEN: Now your other sisters, your three, because of course there's the two of you and then you have Sheila and Monica and Lee Ann. Are they coming in for this award tonight?
JULIE DOLAN: All our here, even our mom is here. A couple of husbands.
LIZ DOLAN: My sister Monica's out there, Julie's husband is back there.
O'BRIEN: We have a little family affair.
JULIE DOLAN: Yes, we have quite an entourage.
O'BRIEN: As women in radio, do you look over and see what your sisters in radio struggle with and are just amazed?
JULIE DOLAN: I mean this is really amazing what they have done and how it's such personal risks. The co-founder of this radio station says she worries about two things, terrorists and fanatics. And to imagine that that's what you have to deal with every day just to be able to connect women in Iraq to educate them, to give them their own voice. That's important. LIZ DOLAN: Even just coming to work is hard for them because she was saying, she wrote to us this weekend in an e-mail that in the Sunni dominated areas in Baghdad they're cracking down on women driving. They're not letting them even drive their cars to work anymore.
O'BRIEN: It kind of puts it all in perspective for you. And you're like on the top of your is probably getting the kids off to school and no coffee in the house and you realize that people are trying to do their jobs with a really important mission.
LIZ DOLAN: And the stakes are very high. Because if they succeed then the voice of women will really be heard in the future Iraqi government and that's the most important thing.
O'BRIEN: And if they fail --
LIZ DOLAN: Yeah.
O'BRIEN: Alright, well thank you so much for talking with us. Good luck with your project. It's only $100,000. Julie Dolan, Liz Dolan, you get the money then you go. Which means of course you'll have to do an interview with us again.
JULIE DOLAN: We'd love that Soledad.
O'BRIEN: We would love to see that. It's a really doable figure. I hope you make it. And congratulations on your award.
JULIE DOLAN: Thank you so much.
O'BRIEN: The Satellite Sisters airing six days a week on XM radio and more than 80 stations across the country. If you want to make a donation to Radio Al Mahaba go right to the website for the Satellite Sisters, that's satellitesisters.com. John?
ROBERTS: Thanks Soledad. Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, a very special ring tone.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: I'm Daniel Sieberg in Atlanta. A ring tone that only kids can hear. We'll see if it really exists when AMERICAN MORNING continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: When it comes to cell phones children may have one big advantage over adults at least when it comes to a certain ring tone. CNN Technology Correspondent Daniel Sieberg joins us now live from Atlanta. Good morning Daniel.
SIEBERG: Good morning John. Yeah, those tech savvy kids are at it again. This time they have created a ring tone that is meant to avoid parent or teacher detection. And don't adjust your TV set, there may be parts of this story you simply can't hear.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SIEBERG: Ring tones can give your cell phone a unique sound but they can quickly turn into a symphony of noise. So what if your ring tone sounded like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't hear a thing.
SIEBERG: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need to get my hearing checked.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, not at all.
SIEBERG: Here's the catch. There's a good chance that kids can hear the ring tone known as the mosquito but adults can't.
Yeah, I can hear that. A high vibration. A high pitched tone.
SIEBERG: Presbyopia(PH) is the natural hearing loss from aging. The damage or loss of some of the thousands of hair cells in the inner ear and the first to go as we age are those that hear high frequency sounds. These tech savvy teenagers are designing 3D characters and creating video games at the ID Tech Camp in Atlanta. The idea of a kids only ring tone got them thinking about the possibilities.
MICHAEL EVERTS, ID TECH CAMPER: If I was in a class or something and text messaging sometimes when you're vibrating you can hear it through your pocket, against the wood of the desk or something. But if this -- you know if I use this ring tone when a text message came, I could hear it but the teacher couldn't.
PAUL COSTA, ID TECH CAMPER: But if people actually want to not get caught they just need to talk like text message their friends or anything. This would be a really good ring -- this would be a good ring tone in school.
SIEBERG: Ironically the sound was originally used by store owners to deter kids from loitering outside. But now the idea has been turned on its ear.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: I wish to point out this is not necessarily an age test. We did find some people out there who were a little bit older, a few gray hairs and they could hear the sound. And kids out there it's not available with every wireless carrier for phones just yet. But with kids who are determined there's usually a way to get this stuff on your phone. John?
ROBERTS: Gosh, Presbyteria, presbyopia.
SIEBERG: The list goes on.
ROBERTS: What's next Presbyterian? Can you really not hear that ring tone? SIEBERG: Well we'll do a little test for you and for everybody who's watching out there. I want you to listen, I'm going to turn away here so I can play the sound and I want you to listen very carefully. It's going to be very faint but here we go.
Now you're not hearing anything because I did a false positive there. I didn't play it. I wanted to see if people were paying attention, okay. Going to play it here for real. Just a second. Not hearing anything, John?
ROBERTS: Not hearing anything but here's the deal. That even if we probably could hear it, we wouldn't be able to hear it because the technology through which you and I are linked up probably doesn't carry --
SIEBERG: The excuses. I knew they were going to come, yeah, sure. We can blame that, sure.
ROBERTS: I think this little bug in my ear here cuts out at about 12 kilohertz, so I'm not going to hear it.
SIEBERG: It's early in the morning.
ROBERTS: I got the young ears you know, I can hear just about anything. I'm sure. I heard that.
SIEBERG: Now he's getting paranoid.
O'BRIEN: Exactly. Hear that, hear that.
ROBERTS: I'm going to start hearing things that people aren't actually saying that's when you're really in trouble. Alright Daniel, appreciate it.
Would you buy a diet bar from the people who make the butter finger? Andy?
ANDY SERWER, CNN ANCHOR: Well John you may be able to do that. First this company fattens you up and now it will be able to slim you down. And sold the most expensive painting in the world is on sale and bought. We'll tell you about that coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Looking at a live picture this morning from Kings Point in New York at the Merchant Marine Academy. To the right of your screen is President Bush. He's going to be addressing the graduates in just about an hour or so. FDR dedicated the facility back in 1943 and that was the last time that a sitting president spoke at the academy. The president will be the first president to address graduates. Again his remarks are expected at about 10:40 a.m. eastern time.
ROBERTS: Boy you want to talk about getting both ends of the business here. A candy giant is now getting into the weight loss business. Andy has that. But first let's first get a market check. SERWER: Thanks John. Let's go down to Wall Street and check out the big board, see how stocks are fairing at this hour. And indeed they are up 33 points to the upside, those Dow Jones Industrials looking for some stability in this topsy-turvy market that we've been experiencing since early May.
Yeah, speaking of a candy company looking to get in the weight loss business, didn't think this was ever going to really happen, did you? Well it has. Apparently Nestle is going to be buying Jenny Craig, announcing this today for $600 million. Jenny Craig has about 650 weight loss centers around the world. That would be about a million per center, right? And you're right, you can fatten up on this company and then slim down. Here's what Nestle sells, Kit Kat bars, Nestquick, Butter Fingers, Nestle's Crunch, Toll House, Hot Pockets, Dreyer's, Edy's, Hagaan Daz. And then you have to figure a way to loose all that. And they have a way to do it.
ROBERTS: It's like those hospitals that excel in cardiac care and they have the fast food outlet in their restaurant.
SERWER: Right.
And I wanted to finally this morning tell you about the most expensive painting in the history of mankind, bought. A record price paid for a painting. Cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder, he is the son of the late Estee Lauder, paid $135 million for this 1907 portrait by Gustave Clint. Did I say that right, I think I did. Gustave Clint. This is a portrait of the wife of a sugar industrialist in Vienna. At the turn of last century. The painting has a fascinating history. You can read about it in the papers a little bit. It was seized by the Nazis and then the descendents of that woman spent decades trying to get it back from the Austrian government. It finally did.
ROBERTS: I'd say they just weren't paying enough. $133 million.
SERWER: They got it back this aunt who lives in Los Angeles she finally got it and it she's elderly and decided to sell it and that's why Ronald Lauder.
ROBERTS: Will he put it in one of his homes, will he donate it to a museum?
SERWER: He's going to be putting it in a gallery actually right now. So it could go for sale again and maybe we'll have another record.
O'BRIEN: Alright Andy, thanks.
SERWER: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: CNN LIVE TODAY is coming up next. Hey Daryn, good morning.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning Soledad. We're going to focus on a story from a part of Iraq called the triangle of death. A group linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq said that it captured two American soldiers, but the website claim offers no proof. At home the families are waiting in Oregon and Texas, we're going to visit the soldiers' hometowns plus this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Big brick of ones really meant something, the kids' eyes really lit up.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: You might have heard about this guy last week. A man who puts his money where his mouth is. His campaign against smoking earned some students a big payday. He is my guest just ahead. And buckle up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
This guy will go --
Close the windows.
It will close the windows. This seat belt will go like this. Snug you in really tight. The seats will move. The windows will close. The sunroof will close, the brakes will energize.
All of it suspects you're about to have an accident.
Right.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Smart cars of the future they are here today. Stick around for a test drive. We have important developments on stories and breaking news ahead on "LIVE TODAY" beginning a new week in just like two and a half minutes.
O'BRIEN: Alright Daryn. Thank you. Look forward to that. Short break on AMERICAN MORNING, we'll be back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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