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American Morning

Fidel Castro's Cuba; Does Border Security Need to be Tightened?; Mel Gibson Issues Another Apology

Aired August 02, 2006 - 08:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien. Miles has the week off. Rich Sanchez is filling in for him. He's in Miami this morning. Going to get to him in just a moment.
(NEWSBREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's head down to Little Havana in Miami and Rick Sanchez. Good morning.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Carol.

I want to give you a sense of what happens in a town as political as Miami is. The Cuban exile community has been known for being extremely passionate as they are political. We happen to be in a place called Versaille, this is that famous corridor called Calle Ocho, or Southwest A Street, which is the heart of Little Havana.

You might be able to see now -- we're going to show you a picture of what's called a quiosco. It's essentially a coffee stand. There's probably one of these every two or three blocks all over south Florida. It is where people gather every morning to have their cup of java and discuss politics. Not "American Idol," not anything else, but politics. They've been doing so for almost half a century here in south Florida, but for the first time, they feel that they have something to talk about they've long been wanting to see, and that is the downfall of the communist regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba.

It is a big deal to them. Obviously, they're the ones who are the most strident, so they're the ones you're going to see celebrating on the streets on a nightly basis. But not all of south Florida and not the entire Cuban exile community is quite as strident. It's actually become a much more monolithic community. Polls seem to indicate now that even as many -- as 50 percent in some polls -- would like to see normalization of relations with the Cuban government at some point.

So it really does play in many different ways. It's a complicated community. But one, no doubt, at this particular point in time, is looking forward to a time when many of them can return to the country they left back in the early 1960s, thinking they would only be in the United States for maybe a month, maybe a year. Instead it's almost been 47, 48 years. And they're still waiting.

Soledad, back over to you.

SANCHEZ: All right, Rick, thanks. It certainly has stretched into a very long time.

In fact, many Cubans have never known another leader than Fidel Castro. Obviously, during that time, it's become a very different country over those nearly 50 years.

Joining us this morning for a closer look at Cuba's longtime leaders, CNN's senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield.

Good morning.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: Good morning.

Well, you know, if age and illness are, in fact, ending Fidel Castro's reign, then nature will have accomplished something that ten American presidents have tried and failed to do, through a remarkable history that stretches back just about half a century.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD (voice-over): It was in January 1959 when 32-year-old Fidel Castro led his insurgents into Havana. Eisenhower was president. Colored television and rock 'n' roll music were almost brand-new.

Castro quickly assumed full control over Cuba's political and economic life and aligned himself with the Soviet Union when the Cold War was in full bloom. The U.S. responded with an embargo, then with the royally botched Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. A year later, when the Soviets put offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba, the world came as close as it ever had to World War III.

And over the decades that followed, Cuba repeatedly came to play an outsized role in American political affairs.

In the mid-'70s, CIA efforts to kill Castro helped trigger congressional hearings that greatly limited the CIA's power.

In 1980, a backlash in Arkansas over the handling of Cuban refugees cost Bill Clinton the governorship and almost ended his political life.

The attempt by the Reagan administration to stop another Cuba from emerging in Nicaragua led it to provide aid to the contras in defiance of Congress, and gave Ronald Reagan his biggest political crisis.

And in 2000, the fate of a young Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez, helped deliver tens of thousands of Cuban-American votes to Republican George W. Bush in Florida. Without that incident, Al Gore would almost certainly have won Florida and with it, the White House.

Over the decades, Cuban-American relations have uniquely remained frozen in time. China, once seen as a certain future communist enemy, is now an enthusiastic trading partner. Communist Vietnam, with whom the U.S. fought a bloody decade-long war, now welcomes American investment and tourists. But Cuba remains off-limits, perhaps a testament to the Cuban-American voter.

As for Castro himself, his survival can be credited to a highly unusual mix, a mix of authoritarian rule; no elections held; little, if any, dissent permitted; and personal magnetism. Years ago, one conservative publication described Castro as "the only communist leader who could likely win a free election."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: And when the news came that Fidel Castro had transferred political power, there were, as you've heard, celebrations in the streets of Little Havana, reflecting the belief that his passing from the scene would mean a very different Cuba. But when you remember that power is now held by his brother Raul -- if anything, more dogmatic than Fidel -- and remember all the failed predictions of earlier years, those celebrations may be premature -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: What's the leading theory of what happens when Castro dies, whether it's today or it's ten years from now?

GREENFIELD: I think the most -- the most prevalent one is a slow movement towards some kind of rapprochement involving at first trade. There are a lot of conservative, Republican Midwestern congressman senators, who, perhaps suprisingly, want that embargo changed. They'd like to sell grain to Cuba. Certainly, tourism is something that has actually made Cuba's economy more healthy than it's been in years past. I think -- I've read that it's 90 miles to Miami, as we've heard for 47 years would make a difference.

As far as political change, I think that's a much longer process. Fidel has a very autocratic grip on Cuban political life, and I don't know that -- the idea that Raul is going to lessen the reigns on the that power seems a little bit -- what shall we say -- optimistic?

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, I mean, some people have described him as you did, you know, sort of more dogmatic in some ways, although less healthy than Castro?

GREENFIELD: He's 75, and (INAUDIBLE). You know, just very quickly, when Franco died in Spain after decades of neo-Fascist rule, that country, within a couple of years, turned democratic. But the communist apparatus in Cuba is so prevalent in so many parts of life -- the educational system, the political system, the whole economy -- that that's going to be very hard to loosen that grip, I think, compared to a place like Spain.

O'BRIEN: I remember spending -- when I spent a decent amount of time in Cuba, because my relatives are from there, the number of people -- neighbors who spy on each other. I mean, it's so entrenched that, I think you're right, it's going to take a long time before people just stop reporting on each other in that kind of a ssystem.

GREENFIELD: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: And so on and so on. GREENFIELD: Right. And then there are those of us who have an incredibly narrow view of the whole issue and just care that the price of Cuban cigars might drop at some point.

O'BRIEN: Then there's that. Jeff Greenfield, thanks, as always.

CNN "Security Watch" now to share with you. A group of undercover investigators used fake IDs, phony names and they were able to slip past security agents at U.S. borders everywhere. Now they're taking their findings to Washington, D.C.

Details now from homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're driver's licenses and other documents were fakes, but undercover investigators were still able to get into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico at nine border crossings, according to testimony from the Government Accountability Office. In three instances, they didn't even show an I.D. In all of the others border agents failed to detect the fraudulent documents.

CLARK KENT ERVIN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: If government investigators can present fake documents and get their way through our borders, then certainly terrorists can too.

MESERVE: The GAO ran a similar test three years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't help but get the view that the door to America is very wide open.

MESERVE: But the new investigation concludes terrorists or criminals can still pass freely into the United States with little or no chance of being detected. The Department of Homeland Security says it has trained border agents to spot fake documents, and more than 75,000 were intercepted last year, but right now 8,000 different kinds of documents are used to enter the country, including easy to forge licenses and birth certificates. Experts say accepting fewer, more reliable documents is crucial.

ERVIN: We need to have tamper-proof documents that are also biometric in nature so that we can confirm that traveler presenting the document is in fact the traveler to whom the document was issued, and that that traveler is not a terrorist.

MESERVE (on camera): A law requiring travelers entering the U.S. to present passports or other secure documents is slated to take effect in 2008, but some members of Congress are trying to push that date back even further.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: You want to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, Mel Gibson's apology version 2.0. He's now acknowledging those anti-Semitic remarks. He's also asking for a meeting of Jewish leaders. How's it going to play in Tinseltown. We'll talk to a Hollywood insider coming up next.

Then later, our weeklong series "Inside Autism." We'll take a look at how early intervention is having some dramatic results for children who have autism.

Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

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O'BRIEN: Actor/director Mel Gibson is issuing another apology. You might want to call it apology 2.0. This one specifically addresses those anti-Semitic remarks he made when he was pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving. Is this latest mea culpa a little too little too late?

Tom O'Neil is the senior editor of "In-Touch Weekly."

Tom, nice to see you. Long time, no see. Good morning.

TOM O'NEIL, "IN-TOUCH WEEKLY": Yes, it's good to be back.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. OK, you know, let's walk through slowly some of these apologies. I've been calling it kind of version 2.0 because it seems it gets more honed every single day that passes. He got a lot of flack for the first apology, because some people felt it was sort of the apology that's a non-apology.

O'NEIL: Right, and he didn't fess up to the religious slurs in the first one, and it really read like it was written by a press agent.

O'BRIEN: Yes, left that out. That was kind of a biggie that was left out. Here's what he said, part of it at least, "I am deeply ashamed of everything I said, and I apologize to anyone I offended." Well, kind of didn't mention the biggie. Do you think he had to come back with the second version?

O'NEIL: Oh, yes, of course he had to be more specific about it. Oh, yes.

O'BRIEN: He goes on at the end of this, the first apology, to say, "I've battled the disease of alcoholism for all my adult life. I profoundly regret my horrific relapse." Which of course is a way of saying it ways the alcohol talking. There are people who would say, in vino veritas, meaning when you're drinking, that's when things you're really thinking come out. Do you think -- alcohol can explain the DUI, but not the anti-Semitic remarks. Is that what people are basically saying? O'NEIL: Right, right, and that's what he may never be able to surmount in Hollywood. Look, this is a town where I'm at right now, where they -- just last year at the Oscars we saw "Brokeback Mountain" and "North Country," you know, two movies about rights movements for gays and women, and we've seen of course many, many great Holocaust movies and movies about racial prejudice, like "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." They really take their rights seriously here. And we all know that the dark, ugly side of anti-Semitism is out there, but we can never pin it on somebody. And all of a sudden somebody is Mel Gibson? Soledad, he's arguably the biggest star in the world. Five times he has won the People's Choice Award for the top American filmmaker. He didn't even have movies most of those years. And this is determined by -- it used to be, anyway -- by the Gallup Poll, which is a pretty accurate reflection of American opinion.

O'BRIEN: So the second apology is what that brings us all to, and he says this, he describes it as a moment of insanity. Given what you just said, what do you make of this? Is this going to play?

O'NEIL: He's an actor. Do we believe this or not? You know, really, that's what surprises me. On one hand, he says, I'm not an anti-Semite and I don't believe these things really, and then in that second apology, there's a very telling line, where he says, "I want to discover where these things come from." Whoa.

O'BRIEN: Yes, that's what mean? I mean this is where he opens up to wanting to talk to Jewish leaders. And yes, exactly that, I want to journey through a look at where these are coming from. What does that mean, do you think?

O'NEIL: In a way, to me, anyway, it looks as if he's facing the honesty of this, and these feelings are in there and may be real. Remember, his father has called the Holocaust a fiction. You know, there's now an investigation into this church he belongs to, this Holy Family Parish Church, which is really right-wing Catholic. It doesn't believe in -- you know, divorce. It doesn't -- it believes that the Jews were responsible for killing Jesus.

The thing that scares me now, Soledad, is that this guy's got an army of tabloid reporters on his neck. And he has a dark side that we're just seeing here. We're going to see a lot more things about his life and -- you know, somebody who has held himself up to such a pious standard has further to fall.

O'BRIEN: At the end of the day, is this going to really just mean the full-on P.R. blitz? You know, step one, go to rehab; step two, come out, do all the morning talk shows. Step three -- you know the deal.

O'NEIL: Sure, sure. I'm ten feet away from Larry King's desk. He's going to be sitting here, I predict you, in a couple of weeks. But I'm not sure it's going to do much good. I think really Mel's fans will forgive him, but he needs the Hollywood system. When he made "Passion for the Christ," he didn't. He went outside the system and distributed it himself. But with his new movie "Apocalypto" coming out perhaps December 8, he went back to Disney and he needs their help.

I talked to a top studio executive yesterday who will have to go nameless who said we don't care if he opens an orphanage in Israel on his knees, we're not forgiving this guy. Wow.

O'BRIEN: So talking to Jewish leaders on the Day of Atonement, which has been suggested, may not do any good. Tom O'Neil, the senior editor at "In Touch Weekly." Thanks, Tom. Nice to see you, as always.

O'NEIL: Same here, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Up next, Andy Serwer's "Minding Your Business." Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: Good morning, Soledad. It's a swoosh story. Nike's CEO Phil Knight just does it to Stanford University.

And why looking like the greatest basketball player of all time is a problem. We'll explain, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

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O'BRIEN: A look at the day's top stories coming up right after this short break.

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